Less than 24 hours after the latest episode of Elsbeth aired on CBS, the show got some excellent news in the form of two nominations in major categories for an upcoming awards show. Not only is leading lady Carrie Preston in the running for Best Actress, but Elsbeth itself is up for Best Series at the 31st annual Critics Choice Awards early in the 2026 TV schedule, against some stiff competition.
If you noticed that I didn't name the genre of the nominations, that would be because Elsbeth switched consideration categories this fall, and the change has clearly paid off. I'm excited to see Carrie Preston get some well-deserved attention, especially after she broke down the show's "Gotcha!" scenes to CinemaBlend earlier in the 2025 TV schedule.
Elsbeth's Critics Choice Nominations
Like The Good Wife and The Good Fight ahead of it, Elsbeth was presumed to be a drama with a slight comedic bent when the pilot premiered back in early 2024. In the three seasons since, however, the storylines have gotten sillier. Sure, there are still serious twists, like the murder of a nefarious judge (played by Michael Emerson, Carrie Preston's real-life husband) last season and the mystery of Kaya's new job earlier this season, but there have been more laughs lately. (You can stream the series with a Paramount+ subscription.)
So, it wasn't altogether shocking when Variety reported in November that CBS would be submitting Elsbeth for consideration as a comedy for the upcoming awards circuit, and the change has already worked wonders. Emmy-winner Carrie Preston could add a Critics Choice Award to her list of accolades, although she's facing strong competition. Take a look at all the nominees for Best Actress in a Comedy Series:
- Kristen Bell – Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
- Natasha Lyonne – Poker Face (Peacock)
- Rose McIver – Ghosts (CBS)
- Edi Patterson – The Righteous Gemstones (HBO Max)
- Carrie Preston – Elsbeth (CBS)
- Jean Smart – Hacks (HBO Max)
While all of those names are strong contenders, Jean Smart has won in the category several times already for Hacks. I am glad to see some network TV representation on the list. Awards ceremonies in recent years have favored premium cable and streaming options over network offerings of 20+ episodes, so CBS has a lot to be happy about with both Carrie Preston for Elsbeth and Rose McIver for Ghosts. Both shows appear in the list of nominees for Best Comedy Series as well:
- Abbott Elementary (ABC)
- Elsbeth (CBS)
- Ghosts (CBS)
- Hacks (HBO Max)
- Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
- Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
- The Righteous Gemstones (HBO Max)
- The Studio (Apple TV)
More network TV with ABC's Abbott Elementary! I'm bummed to see that NBC's St. Denis Medical didn't make the cut for Best Comedy like last year, although David Alan Grier is again a candidate for Best Actor in a Comedy after earning the same nom for the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards. CBS celebrated Elsbeth's nomination on social media, posting:
The 31st annual Critics Choice Awards will air live on E! and USA Network on Sunday, January 4, so the wait isn't too much longer to learn if Elsbeth will take any trophies for its first awards season categorized as a comedy rather than a drama. I'd consider it an underdog at this point, but Kathy Bates won for Best Actress in a Drama Series as star of CBS' Matlock at the 30th CCAs when Anna Sawai was arguably the expected winner Shōgun. It's not impossible for a network TV star and/or show to achieve an upset.(Shōgun otherwise swept the drama categories.)
All of this is to say that if a CBS drama could earn a Critics Choice Award last time around, I wouldn't rule it out for an hour-long CBS comedy.
Carrie Preston's "Gotcha" Scenes
It's often been said that comedy is harder to perform than drama, and Carrie Preston is familiar with both. After all, she originated the role of Elsbeth Tascioni on The Good Wife and reprised the role for The Good Fight, neither of which are close enough to a comedy to qualify as anything other than a definite drama. When I spoke with the leading lady, who won an Emmy for The Good Wife in 2013, about the Season 3 premiere featuring Stephen Colbert, she opened up about the scenes at the end of each episode when Elsbeth reveals how she cracked the case of the week:
We call them the 'Gotcha! scenes.' For these Gotcha! scenes, they pretty much let me run with it as far as what I'm going to do physically, the directors and producers. Those scenes are very challenging because they can be five-page monologues that I have where I'm recreating the whole thing, and they're all very tightly written.
Those Gotcha! monologues may be tightly scripted across multiple pages, but Preston brings the energy and activity to her character's big reveal each week. After all, Elsbeth doesn't exactly just stand still in front of the killer and recite the evidence against them, and she usually puts on a bit of a performance before Captain Wagner and Co. emerge to make the arrest. The actress continued:
I spend a lot of time on the [scenes] and shaping them and making sure that they are entertaining. Because I'm telling the audience everything they already know, with the exception of like one clue, so I want to make that entertaining, and not just feel like a sum up. I always try to find ways to make it come to life.
Carrie Preston went on to share that she even changed part of the Gotcha! scene for the Season 3 premiere, when Elsbeth was busting Amy Sedaris' character for her murders by bringing a page into the mix with her to reenact the murder of Stephen Colbert's fictitious late night TV host. At the time, the leading lady confirmed that the reenactment wasn't scripted, and explained:
That was just me, and it just worked out with the set and the desk being there and all that stuff. There's a lot of magical things that often happen when I step onto the set and I collaborate with the other people there.
So, will Carrie Preston and/or Elsbeth win in a Comedy category at the 31st annual Critics Choice Awards? You'll have to tune in to E! or USA on January 4 to find out for yourself live, but the win for Matlock as a drama on CBS last time and ABC's Abbott Elementary in years past as a Comedy, network TV shows don't need to be counted out, and Preston clearly puts in the work to deserve the nomination.
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